it. Following its railroad service, it functioned as a warehouse between 1962 and 1989. Renovations Article published in The Old Stone Wall, Fall 2003, distributed by the State of New Hampshire, Division of Cultural Resources, Division of Historical Resources: Major work began in August on the state-owned Contoocook Covered Railroad Bridge. The National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges has employed Tim Andrews, proprietor of Barns and Bridges of New England, to lift the four sagging corners of the bridge and replace decayed bed timbers. The Society is donating the cost of Andrews' work from its Eastman Thomas Fund. The span is under the administrative care of the Division of Historical Resources, which has no capital budget for its maintenance. Over the past decade, the National Society has donated repairs to the side sheathing and flat metal roof of the bridge, purchased fire retardant chemicals for the wooden span, and provided countless hours of volunteer labor in maintaining the bridge. For the current building campaign, Tim Andrews has brought heavy steel I-beams (lent by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation) from his last job, the award-winning restoration of the Bog Covered Bridge in Andover. Andrews also hopes to straighten some of the kinks that the bridge acquired when it was tipped off its abutments in the flood of 1936 and again in the hurricane of 1938. Contoocook Bridge is one of three surviving covered bridges on the Concord and Claremont rail line. Two others, in western Newport, are also state-owned, but are administered as trail crossings by the Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED). Together, the three remaining Concord and Claremont Branch bridges are among the most remarkable of the eight covered railroad bridges that survive in the world. The 1889 Contoocook Bridge is the oldest of the eight; Pier Bridge (1907) in Newport is the longest; and Wright's Bridge (1906) in Newport is the only surviving double Town lattice truss railroad bridge with integral laminated wood plank arches. Recognizing this rarity, the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) selected Contoocook Bridge and its sister span, Wright's Bridge, for detailed study and recordation this summer. After it ceased to serve rail traffic in 1960, the Contoocook Bridge was owned by a succession of private individuals. The bridge became the property of the Town of Hopkinton (Contoocook is a village in Hopkinton) in 1989. Not wanting to own and maintain